Barbara Karst Bougainvillea

Brilliant Red Flowers Reminiscent of the Tropics

Add Brilliant RED to Your Landscape

A profusion of non-stop summer splendor, the Barbara Karst Bougainvillea knows no blooming boundaries! This showy bougainvillea is flush with scarlet red blooms.

The source of this bounty isn’t flowers or leaves, but the bracts. They run the full length of each arching stem, luring admiring pollinators to tiny, white blossoms nestled among this brilliant bouquet.

A tropical plant, the Barbara Karst serves as an evergreen in frost-free zones, promising a mass of color from late spring well into fall. This durable perennial can handle colder climates, returning year-after-year with an abundance of warm-weather proliferation.

Unlimited Garden Uses

The Barbara Karst Bougainvillea is available as a vine or already trimmed and trained in tree-form.

Add Amazing Color with this Quick Growing Vine
Its vigorous nature can be “persuaded” into most any form your garden plans involve. Reaching up to 30 feet, it fills in quickly as ground cover, a privacy screen or cascading hedge. With a little guidance and support, the spiny thorns climb just about any structure, creating a bright red embellishment on an arbor, trellis or fence line – even the side of your house! Invest a little more time pruning, and this bougainvillea can be tamed into a shrub, container plant or grown in a hanging basket.

You’ll Want This Impressive Tree
If you’re looking for a flowering tree, the Barbara Karst is easily maintained as a bonsai or topiary. When ordering in tree-form, all the work of training the vine into a single trunk is complete. Just keep your shears handy to shape the top and snip off errant shoots during the growing season. Most find a height of 4 to 6 feet manageable… but it will get taller if you want to let it go.

Hardiest of ALL The Bougainvilleas

Aside from your need to keep it “in check,” the Barbara Karst is a no-fuss, low-maintenance bougainvillea. Whether planted in the ground or a garden pot, full sun and an occasional soaking are all it requires… once the roots are established.

It’s a top-performer in hot, desert-like conditions while tolerating temperatures as low as 30 degrees F. You might see new growth nipped by winter frost, but it easily rebounds once spring arrives.

Mass of Blooming Beauty

The Barbara Karst routinely outshines its familiar cousin, the San Diego Red Bougainvillea, in abundance and beauty. To achieve this brilliance in your own backyard, always plant your bougainvillea where it can get lots of sun – at least 6 hours each day. Remember, additional watering boosts leaf production, but drier conditions are what make the bracts really stand out!

Prized for its over-the-top display of brilliant color and natural propensity to flourish the moment it’s planted, the Barbara Karst Bougainvillea will make a huge splash in your garden landscape. Get your order in today! This popular variety is expected to go fast!

Planting & Care

The Barbara Karst Bougainvillea (Bougainvillea ‘Barbara Karst’) is a lovely crimson red blooming vine accented with tiny white accent flowers. The advantage of the Barbara Karst is that it can be trained as a climbing vine suited for fences and trellises or trained to look more tree-like in its form through staking techniques. The bougainvillea is best for USDA growing zones 9-11 if being planted outdoors but can be container grown for growing zones 4-11. It will mature quickly to heights of 15-30 feet tall and 8-10 feet wide providing it receives the necessary full sun exposure with well draining soil. When properly spaced the bougainvillea can be used as a decorative hedge, privacy border or a beautiful standalone specimen!

Planting Directions (in ground): Bougainvilleas do best in a full sun location. Try and find somewhere that will offer at least 6 hours of direct sun every day. Ensure your drainage is good, plants do not care to be in areas where water may collect for prolonged periods. Bougainvilleas like to climb as they are a vine so make sure it has something like a fence or trellis to grow properly. If growing as a hedge, space them 18-20 inches apart.

1) Make your hole 2-3 times the width and just as deep as the root system.
2) Bougainvilleas like a slightly acidic soil with a pH of 5.5 to 6.0 for the best results. An inexpensive soil testing kit can easily help you determine the pH range of your soil.
3) Carefully remove the vine from its container and lightly comb the roots with your hands to help free up some of the roots.
4) Position the plant and then begin backfilling the hole with a 60/40 ratio of your native soil to gardening soil. Tamp down lightly as you fill to prevent any air pockets from forming.
5) Water the planting site when finished to settle the soil then broadcast mulch around the base to maintain soil moisture and keep competing growth such as grass or weeds away.
*Tip: Limestone can assist with increasing the pH range of your soil whereas sulfur will help lower it.

Planting Directions (potted):
1) Select a pot that is 1-2 sizes larger than the container the plant arrived in with ample drainage holes on the bottom.
2) Choose a potting soil mix with the correct pH level for the best success (5.5 to 6.0)
3) Add a little soil to the bottom of the container first so once the tree has been completely potted, there will be at least a one inch gap from the lid of the pot. This makes for easy watering without any mess.
4) Tamp down the soil around the rootball as you fill to ensure no air pockets have formed.
5) Water to settle the soil completely and place it in an area that will receive full sun (6+ hours every day).

Watering: Water the bougainvillea as needed. The best thing is a consistently moistened soil but NOT overly saturated. Too much water can weaken the vine and cause excess leaf growth in place of the decorative color you’d expect.

For a potted bougainvillea, use your index finger to determine if more water is needed. Stick it into the soil down to a depth of 2 inches and feel around. If there is still moisture present, leave it be a bit longer. If it has dried out, water until you see it escaping the drainage holes and stop.

Pruning: Your bougainvillea will respond to pruning greatly when done properly. Pruning is typically done in the late fall or early winter season. Some light trimming will keep the vine trained to a certain visual habit. Trimming removes smaller materials and gives the form a certain silhouette as well as maintain the shape. Hedge planted bougainvilleas will require some extensive pruning unless they have been properly trained along a trellis or other vertical support systems. You can remove dead wood/branches as they appear. Pruning the tips of the wood just after a bud node encourages the formation of new branches to form at the pruning junction.

Potted vines should have their tips pinched off monthly during their active growing season to encourage more branching of the vine. Pruning should be done after winter with sterilized clippers. Rubbing alcohol works perfectly for sterilization.

Fertilizing: During the blooming season your bougainvillea will respond well to monthly applications of fertilizer. The best results have been from 6-8-10 formulas which still allow enough nitrogen for healthy growth but also a boost of phosphorous to encourage good blooming. Discontinue fertilizing as summer comes to an end. Potted bougainvilleas do better with a balanced 20-20-20 water soluble formula applied every two weeks at half the strength recommended on the packaging.